A blacklegged tick, also known as a deer tick, which is a carrier of Lyme disease. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention via APInvasive plants, new housing development and climate change are boosting tick populations in Vermont, officials say, prompting new concerns about diseases the tiny insects carry.
Although ticks have been present for a long time in Vermont, the population has grown substantially, said Patti Casey, environmental surveillance program director for the Vermont Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets.
The blacklegged tick, or deer tick, is the type most frequently spotted in the state and responsible for 99% of the tick bite illnesses reported to the Vermont Department of Health.
“We are a high-incidence state for several blacklegged tick-driven tick-borne diseases,” said Natalie Kwit, public health veterinarian for the state Department of Health. “For Lyme disease, we have had over 1,000 cases in 2023.”
According to the 2018-22 Tick Pathogen Surveillance Report by the Department of Health, more than half of the blacklegged ticks analyzed carry Lyme disease, an infection that can be transmitted to humans and cause symptoms like fever, fatigue, headache, skin rash, and if left untreated can affect heart, joints, and the nervous system. In Vermont, Chittenden, Windsor and Rutland counties had the highest prevalence of blacklegged ticks infected with the disease.
A lone star tick. Photo by Judy Gallagher via Wikimedia CommonsTicks can be found any time of the year when the temperature is above freezing, with their peak activity being in May and June and then again in October and November. Ticks survive by biting their host for blood, which leads to the transmission of diseases.
Other tick bite illnesses recorded in Vermont are anaplasmosis, babesiosis, hard tick relapsing fever, and Powassan virus disease, which is very rare.
Since 2015, Vermont has had the nation’s highest annual number of cases of anaplasmosis. Symptoms are similar to those of Lyme disease except for the skin rash. The most common effects are fever, muscle aches, chills, malaise and headaches, but the disease can also cause people to develop anemia, low white blood cell counts, low platelet counts and elevated liver enzymes. The illness can have serious consequences if not treated, especially for old patients or people with health problems.
The American dog tick, brown dog tick, squirrel tick and woodchuck tick are other common ticks found in Vermont. The lone star tick, which carries alpha-gal syndrome, an illness that leads to the development of a red meat allergy, is not fully established in Vermont.
“We’re not seeing any of the lone star tick-driven tick-borne diseases in Vermont in humans, so we’re pretty confident that they’re not here, but it doesn’t mean that they can’t geographically expand to be in Vermont in the future,” Kwit said.
To prevent tick bites, Casey suggests wearing long pants tucked into socks and long-sleeve shirts when spending time outdoors in areas where ticks prosper to spot ticks more easily if they end up on clothes. Spraying EPA-registered repellents or treating clothes with permethrin is also recommended to keep ticks away.
Once home, it’s advisable to put the clothes in the dryer on high heat for 10 minutes to kill potential ticks and take a shower, checking the body and scalp to spot bumps.
In case there is a tick, it should be removed quickly using tweezers, grabbing the tick as close as possible to the skin surface and pulling upward steadily, and then cleaning the area with rubbing alcohol, soap and water. The Vermont Department of Health provides detailed guidelines on how to remove ticks.
The Agency of Agriculture, Food & Markets allows people to send ticks to be identified. The agency doesn’t test the ticks for diseases, but it will inform people of the species, sex and age of the tick, giving them information they can tell their doctor to assess the best course of treatment in case they later develop symptoms.
Since many people don’t realize they have been bitten by a tick, experts recommend being on the lookout for potential symptoms, especially after outdoor activities.
The agency also conducts a tick surveillance program in collaboration with the Vermont Health Department and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, collecting ticks across Vermont to test them and gather data on tick species, their habitats and the diseases they may carry.
Casey said the program has been temporarily suspended this year due to uncertainty surrounding funding. The priority has instead shifted to mosquito surveillance to track illnesses such as Eastern equine encephalitis.
“Most of us live in Vermont, in part, because it’s so beautiful, and we like to be outdoors in it. And it’s just that things have changed a little bit, and now we need to be very vigilant about interactions with ticks to try to avoid tick bites,” Casey said. “The good news is that if we’re careful, we can really drastically lower our risk for contracting a tick-borne illness.”
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